Thirty Two

Good morning. Another birthday has come and gone, but before we get into that, let's look at the week. Wednesday, Mia and I hung out with her BFF from Smarty Pants Olivia. They played soccer, did some chalk drawings and overall, had a lot of fun. Her brother plays real nice with Mia as well. Early in the week, the local paper, the Waukesha Freeman would interview her for contributions from her Sweets & Treats sale. She didn't really want to talk much, so I did most of the interview. Later they called Jill in hopes to get more from Mia. Thursday, she was published on the front cover! We were so proud and the woman who did the article and interview was quite impressed that this little 4-year old wanted to raise money for HAWS humane society. They even contacted HAWS to ask about the day she went in to donate. The HAWS employees raved about how sweet she was, and amazing that she was able to raise that much money selling treats. We sent out a few to some out-of-state family to share her article.

While taking our new kitten Marie, Remi and Mia to the vet solo, I got a call from the Milwaukee Torrent owner, Andi Davi. Any time I hear from him, it's always some good news. He wanted me to come up with a quick ad for a Spring 2016 friendly game Marquette vs Torrent. He also went on to tell me all the fun things that are coming soon for the team. He's a big optimist which is absolutely great. Friday,  Mia FaceTimed with her friend Olivia. They had plans to hang out, but her bro got real sick so they did the best they could talking over FaceTime. It was pretty cute. Friday, Jill's parents were in the area looking at some houses. They found some real nice houses and hopefully they can find one to get an offer in. Saturday, Jill and her Mom went to the Farmer's Market while Mia and I hung out. For some reason, she woke up at 5:30AM! I haven't a clue why, but she played with the kitty before laying on the couch watching Full House. I attended the first meeting with The Flood members. The Flood is the Milwaukee Torrent's supporters group. We discussed merchandise and putting together packs and kits for fans to purchase for a good price. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next time we meet. It looks like we'll be quite busy getting things put together. While I was gone, Jill did a photo shoot with Mia and her kitty. The pictures turned out real nice. Later, Jill made a delicious fresh stir fry for my birthday and blonde brownies. SO good :) My parent's came over later with my sister. My sister got me a pirate Minion and my parents gave me a gift card to Stefan's. Jill's parents, her aunt as well as Jill gave me some cash to contribute towards a 1/2 sleeve tattoo. I had hopes of starting it this year, but after going over the cost of what it'll be, I'm going to wait till next year to save up the money for it. I'm nearly at $200, so I've got a good start. I watched the Chelsea vs PSG game on Youtube before my family came in. It was a tough game, but we took them down in PK's. Courtois, our Belgian keeper got the final goal defeating the Paris team. Sunday, we went to the zoo with some friends before I worked 2-10 (actual birthday) Wednesday, we'll get to hang with my best pal Jay and his little guy Caleb. I haven't seen either of them in so long, so I'm truly looking forward to it. Later, Mia will have her last day of swim and the other parents are allowed IN to the pool area to watch. Very excited about it.  Not sure what are the plans for the weekend yet. That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Meow

Good morning. It was another super busy week with a new addition to the family.  We'll get to that later. For some reason on my last week, we couldn't get a hold of any of Mia's friends to hang, including Friday morning playgroup. No one came or was there :( Mia was so disappointed. I hope we can hang with them this week. We do have a playdate with her BFF Olivia set up Wednesday at 10am so we're stoked about that. My 32nd birthday is coming up this weekend. I'm off on the Saturday, but will be working on the Sunday of my birthday. Why? I don't need the day off. As long as I have Saturday with whomever wants to spend time with me, that's totally fine. I do have a 12pm leader meeting with The Flood, The Milwaukee Torrent's supporters group. Basically, we need to come up with ideas for merch, discuss steps to getting the store set up and how to handle orders and other important details. It's pretty exciting being a part of this brand new team. It's already and honor having my design be the actual kit they're wear at games. I designed and finished the goalkeeper kit over the weekend. The owner loves it, so I assume the keeper's will be wearing that as well.

Saturday, Mia took all of the 251.22 that she raised at her lemonade sale and donated it to HAWS. She was so very proud of herself. The HAWS staff was pretty surprised that this little girl was able to raise so much money. And then we looked at all the animals. Mia had her eyes on an all-white kitten. I would have preferred the the agreement that we waited the 2 weeks we promised Mia a kitten if she stayed in her own bed at night, but since Jill said that this cat probably won't be here long, we adopted her. She's very playful, feisty and curious. She nips a bit at times with us and Mia (which she of course doesn't like) but hopefully she'll get used to it. I remember when my cat back home was tiny and did the same thing. They grow out of it. It's weird having a cat again. Last night, she started out sleeping in Mia's bed with her, but moved in by us and pouncing on the bed the rest of the night.  Mia has a phone interview today at 10:30am from the local paper about her recent Mia's Sweets & Treats success. Tomorrow, we have vet appts for both animals so I'll have that challenge to look forward to. I think Jill's parents are coming in this weekend to visit for my birthday. Sunday I work. No big deal. Maybe my day at work for my birthday won't be an insane mess. Thanks for reading!

California Sky

Good evening people. I didn't get to write this morning but I'll try to finish this before I hit the bed. Last week was crazy busy full of lots of laughs and some fun. Monday, Mia got to hang with a lot of her friends at the park. It was the first time we got to hang at our park with her BFF Olivia and her bro (who came along) It was a lot of fun. The girls were adorable and Mia played well with my buddy's boy Benny. My oldest bro came in from California with his family Tuesday so I took that day as well as my usual Wednesday off to spend quality time with them. Tuesday, we went to the dog park with them and got to meet their latest addition, Stamford the Golden Retriever. Wednesday, Him, myself and my Dad played some old vintage Atari and Intellivision games we grew up playing way way back in the day as the ladies (plus my brother and his two boys and nephew Alex) hit up the zoo for the afternoon. It was a lot of fun. We had cake and pizza for Alex's birthday. Mia had such a good time playing with her long-distance cousin. They've been such a fun pair to watch play and hang out. Now that she's a bit older, he can show her stuff on his iPad and they play dinosaurs together...It's a beautiful friendship.

The highlight of their visit of course, was Mia bonding with my older bro. When they lived in Madison, for some reason she wasn't ready to be as open and friendly with him, but as soon as the arrived, she took an immediate liking to him, scaring and sneaking up on him whenever she could. She played soccer with him, myself and Alex Wednesday night. It was so adorable because she would shake her booty before booting the ball. So many laughs.

Throughout the week, we prepared the Mia's Sweets & Treats stand for the Fr-Sun sale. Dog treats, homemade cookies and fresh squeezed lemonade were up for grabs. Jill hand-squeezed roughy 90 lemons Friday morning. Mia had a lot of fun selling all of the goods. One woman argued over the suggested donation of $2 for a bag of cookies. I kept trying to inform her that this whole thing was for charity and she could donate what she wanted, but she ended up just driving away. That really set off Mia. "NO ONE IS BUYING THE COOKIES THAT I WORED REALLY HARD ON!" Saturday, she had better sales. The HAWS humane society ended up sharing the post that Jill sent them, and BOOM! we had some traffic coming in. A lot of people were telling us that they saw the sale from the post, which shows the power of social media :) Dog treats and cookies were selling a little better, but we had to shut down early due to some rain showers. We found out later that people were looking for us after we left around 3:30pm. Aww :( Sunday, same thing. Set up the stand bright and early, and got some more customers courtesy of FACEBOOK. We had hopes of getting some people on their way or  heading home from the nearby church. Some stopped. I don't have the full total of what we made in the 3 days Mia was working hard, but I can assure you, it's over 180 bucks. When we asked Mia "so if someone asks you why are you doing this for the humane society what do you say? she responded with "because I like dogs more than people" OH MIA....Saturday evening, we saw Minions Movie. It was cute and adorable, as expected, but not as good as the Despicable Me films. Plot was lacking at times, but there were plenty of laugh moments.

 This weekend, I'm working a rare Saturday night (covering for a worker). Not too excited, but oh well. Mia's back to her swim class and I'm diligently working hard on a goalkeeper kit for the Torrent as well as some Flood merch for their supporters group. The online store should be opening real real soon. :)

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!!

Fireworks

Good Morning everyone. Going to try to type this blog entry with the little sleep that I got. The first week of July was a busy one. Wednesday, Mia and I made a short road trip to visit my little brother and his kiddos for the morning. We picked up the Mia's Sweets & Treats sign he made for her stand, and hung out with them for the rest of the morning. She had fun despite complain about the "noisy little boys". 4th of July weekend, we had Jill's BFF Leanne come in from out of town. Mia was so excited that she was coming to visit, I swear every 5 minutes she asked me "When is Leanne getting here???" Mia went to this New Berlin community flashlight candy hunt Friday night with the ladies. They turned off all the lights and let the kids loose on to the baseball fields with just a flashlight in search of candy. From what I was told, she had a lot of fun. Saturday morning, The ladies went to Madison while Mia and I went to the 4th of July parade. Last year, I worked the 4th (like I have been for years) and I didn't see the parade. Mia and I parked ourselves right in front of Cherry Berry at the very beginning of the parade. It was a warm, but fun time. The different marching bands brought back some memories for me lugging around the drums to every parade. They had lots of little bands on trucks and trailers, the Milwaukee Admirals mascot Roscoe and of course, people tossing out candy. We left closer to the end of the parade before the local Shriners club was driving around in their little cars.

Later, they came back from Madison and we hung out, I cut the grass, ate and watched the fireworks. I can't remember the last time we watched them together (Jill and I) but it wasn't exactly a fun time :( Mia was super tired, crabby and wasn't enjoying the evening fireworks by any means so it wasn't the best way to end the night. Sunday, we went to a very crowded zoo. It was a pretty nice day overall, before eating at this tasty grilled cheese place not far from our house. The owners of the place were on Shark Tank and struck a deal with one of the sharks. The food was pretty good and I'd eat there again. Malthouse Bistro still is my fav gourmet grilled cheese place.

This week, we've got my brother Bryan coming to town, Mia has a playdate today with one of her best friends and we're opening her Mia's Sweets & Treats stand for the weekend sale. I have to paint lemons on it and we've got cookies to make. Last night, the ladies were making dog treats to sell. I also need to start working on the Milwaukee Torrent's goalkeeper kit. Should be fun. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!!